Dr. Gombrowski works with many patients with varying struggles and with those who identify as LGBT. “Considering the stigma that surrounds mental health, many patients – especially those who identify as LGBT - may avoid entering into treatment," he said. "By running the TCS New York City Marathon on behalf of our behavioral health patients, I hope to minimize the stigma and provide a reminder that anything is possible with hard work and determination.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced that it has awarded 15 new clinical trial research grants totaling more than $22 million over the next four years to boost the development of products for patients with rare diseases. These new grants were awarded to principal investigators from academia and industry across the country.

The American Heart Association’s Heart Walk attracted about 1,200 participants to the Kensico Dam on Oct. 1. More than 70 teams had registered online to participate.In addition to a 5K walk, there were fitness activities, including a “plank challenge” in which participants are timed to see how long they can hold a plank pose. The plank exercise, designed to strengthen the body’s core, involves lying on your belly, placing the hands or forearms directly under the shoulders and rising onto the toes while contracting the glutes and other muscles. Some of those sponsoring this year’s Heart Walk included WMC Health/Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital, Phelps Hospital/Northwell Health, and New York Medical College.

According to Dr. Rebekka Levis, who is an assistant professor at the New York Medical College, not only can babies hear the sounds while in the uterus, but they can even recognize their mothers’ voices.NYMC Faculty: Rebekka Jo Levis, D.O., assistant professor of pediatrics

Dr. Matthew Lorber, a psychiatrist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, agreed. "It is natural for parents to be fearful [after such events], but they have to be careful to not teach teens to be afraid of everything, but rather teach teens smart safety precautions," he said. "You do not want your children to be afraid of going out to crowded events for the rest of their lives, and even worse have them avoiding doing it out of fear," Lorber said. "The long-term effects of being exposed to these fear-invoking events can be traumatic, and it is important for parents to limit teens' exposures, and have an open dialogue answering all questions."

WMC Emergency Medicine Doctor John Berkowitz says the Emergency Operations Center controls the flow of patients and supplies as an emergency unfolds. "Where patients are going, moving, changing around units, how supplies are being distributed, communications with outside agencies like police, and fire news organizations, really everything,” says Emergency Medicine Dr. John Berkowitz about the way. The hospital conducts frequent practice drill to prepare for a code triage, where hundreds of victims would be transported to the hospital. "It's a great responsibility for us that we take very seriously," says Emergency Management and Safety Assistant Director Garrett Doering. "We know that the most seriously injured adults and pediatric patients are coming to us.”NYMC Faculty: Garrett T. Doering, M.S., CEM, MEP, CHSP, adjunct assistant professor of health policy and management and Jonathan Berkowitz, M.D., assistant professor of emergency medicineNYMC Affiliate: Westchester Medical Center

Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, a graduate of Northwestern University Medical School, was one of the first surgeons to repair a knife wound to the heart. Dr. Percy Julian, the second black to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences, was a leader in the synthesis of steroids for treatment of endocrine disorders – but he wasn’t allowed into high school because the only one in his hometown of Montgomery was all-white. Dr. Jane Wright pioneered cancer chemotherapy after graduating from Smith College and New York Medical College.

Westchester Medical Center's new Ambulatory Care Pavillion has reached its highest point.The medical center held a topping off ceremony Wednesday to mark the construction milestone. The 280,000-square-foot, $230 million project is set to be completed next year.

"Our study, for the first time, shows military personnel that have experienced blast exposure exhibit CTE that's basically indistinguishable from [the CTE in] the athletes we've looked at," said study researcher Patric Stanton, a cell biology professor at New York Medical College in Valhalla, New York.

Stuart Newman, a professor of cell biology and anatomy at New York Medical College, warned against such work, however, saying, "You're getting into unsettling ground that I think is damaging to our sense of humanity."

When New York-based Westchester Medical Center Health Network (WMCHealth) decided in 2015 to launch a telehealth program across its 6,200-square-mile service area, the 10-hospital network opted to build it from scratch, investing more than $7 million in technology and infrastructure.Today, its 5,000-square-foot eHealth Center includes 20 multi-media stations equipped with the latest patient-monitoring technology and software. Staffing it 24/7 are highly trained critical care physicians and nurses who specialize in trauma, ICU, neurology, stroke, behavioral health, and, soon cardiology.

26 children are diagnosed with cancer every day in the U.S. A number that is way too high. Dr. Cairo speaks to Good Day New York on pediatric cancer awareness. "While september is cancer awareness day, I consider every day pediatric cancer awareness day," said Dr. Cairo.NYMC Faculty: Mitchell S. Cairo, M.D., professor of pediatrics, medicine, pathology, microbiology and immunology, and cell biology and anatomy

“The shared resources, turnkey wet lab space and sponsored professional services that BioInc@ NYMC offers to promising, high-potential entrepreneurs and startups are second to none,” said Robert W. Amler, a medical college dean and vice president for government affairs.

NYMC Leadership: Robert W. Amler, M.D., M.B.A., dean of School of Health Sciences and Practice and vice president for government affairs

“The reason we have this,” Halperin says of the Holocaust component of the curriculum, “is because this is the way we teach medical ethics. History is sometimes linear and sometimes circular,” Halperin says, adding that the ignorance, prejudice and hate that fed the Holocaust are still with us. The way to combat these, he says, is through education.

This past school year, 12 first-year medical students interviewed Holocaust survivors under the auspices of the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center as part of their course work in the required “Introduction to the History of Medicine” at New York Medical College in Valhalla. The 209 students in the class had been given the option of interviewing a survivor — instead of writing a paper on a famous person in medicine — by Dr. Edward C. Halperin, the college’s CEO and chancellor. Besides interviewing the survivors in their homes, the students had to read a book on medical practices under the Nazis, which included horrific experimentation on Jews in the concentration camps.

The Brain and Spine Surgeons of New York, a privately owned White Plains-based physician group, features some of the top neurosurgeons in the region. It recently finished its move into a newly renovated 25,000-square-foot office at 4 Westchester Park Drive, according to Dr. John Abrahams, president of the group.

Dr. Matthew Lorber cautioned against discontinuing the medication in children with asthma, a lung disease that inflames and narrows the airways. "Ultimately, asthma can be a life-threatening condition in children and cannot be ignored, so I do recommend to parents that their children continue with these lifesaving medications," Lorber said. "It is just very important to monitor for these risks, and it is vital that doctors warn parents about these risks before their children start these medications so they know what to be on the lookout for," Lorber added.